10 Best Third Albums In Rock And Metal History

10. Master Of Reality - Black Sabbath

Birmingham, England's favourite nutter Ozzy Osbourne and friends returned for their third record in 1971, still riding high off the mammoth success of Paranoid.

The Masters of Reality sessions produced tracks like "Children of the Grave" and "Into the Void", but it was missing the big hits like "Paranoid" and "Iron Man". But that's not why this album is famous.

Guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler tuned their instruments down and didn't use reverb when they recorded. The result was a much darker, drier sound that some people claim invented the genres of stoner rock and sludge metal.

It even had an influence on grunge music twenty years later, according to Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan.

This record confirmed that Sabbath were one of the darkest bands around, both in terms of their music and presence on stage. It doubled down on their image as satanists masquerading as a rock band and placed them right at the centre of the counter culture movement.

Whilst not as commercially viable as other Black Sabbath records, Master of Reality has endured in other ways and remains popular amongst the band's faithful even now.